Latest Journal

on 22 October 2018 at 09:08:18 MDT

This will be my first real solid post about my story I suppose, and I'm making this to announce a major change I have decided to make.

Rather than writing novels and self-publishing them, I'm instead going to make them into visual novels.

There's a handful of reasons behind this;

Not much of the writing would have to change

I could make use of the music I create and the art I draw into one format

It's interactive, letting people actually see the story themselves in an immersive way, and it gives me much more power to storytelling in ways a novel just can't accomplish (such as side plots focusing on certain characters in their POV, choices that change the story or procure alternate dialogue, more integrated worldbuilding via items, and secrets...)

In regards to art and music, it will also force me to improve in those areas thanks to active use (backgrounds, here we come...!)

This also gives me the opportunity to learn how to code in python, an area I have zero experience in but have wanted to learn for a long time

I will be able to release them over time in sections, a format I've wanted to pursue for this that physical novels also wouldn't really be able to accomplish

It will be way easier for everyone (with Internet and a device) to access rather than a book

I'm using Ren'py to create these.

So far there's nothing polished enough to "release" yet to the public, but I've already invested time testing around with various features and will continue to do so.

I can't really put a specific time on when anything solid could be put out there as I'm very new to this, but I will put updates from here on out with progress and such.

Some other things to note about it:

There will be no romance.

I will produce early versions that exclude some of the more complex features I'm looking to include that focus on non-canon simple scenarios or interactions between characters. Right now, this is what I'm working towards. This version will be free and when it is completed, a download link will be available on all my medias. More about this later.

If I can become skilled enough or can find someone to help me with such, I'm hoping to be able to incorporate some other functions into these games that include stuff other than just clicking to get to the next dialogue. Some general things I have in mind are shops, some occasional very simple minigames (think pong kind of simple) that require you to beat them to keep moving forward, an item inventory, an achievements system, and a points system which you gain from the minigames and achievements to spend in the shop. These inevitably will take a lot more time to do.

The "main" novels may or may not cost money, it all depends on how this goes. (If they do, it won't be for very much. A few dollars or something.)